Team building games and activities are great ways to help groups develop cooperation, decision making and communication skills. Team building exercises can be adapted for many different settings and public domain examples are found freely available across the web.
In the next few days I will post some of my favourites, used over the years in youth clubs, youth weekends, camps and as team building exercises with new groups.
A key part of these exercises is facilitating a time of group discussion after the activity. Remember to ask open-ended questions, helping the young people to reflect on what they have learned. Team building games can also provide a useful entry point to teaching themes for your group i.e. working together (the church), making choices (guidance), values and leadership.
Much depends on the role of the youth leader. A well planned and prepared activity, followed up with thought-provoking questions can be a significant learning experience.
Team building activities can be simple games, or involve creative problem-solving, or ‘pen and paper’ group survival situations. These games can challenge your young people’s values, cooperation, decision making and leadership skills.There are two classic types of ‘pen and paper’ survival games – selecting equipment and selecting people.
